


Strategizing

by orphan_account



Series: The Sire Bond Series [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Asexual Raphael Santiago, Childe/Sire Bond(s), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Sweet Simon Lewis, Warning of Future Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-12 02:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11727807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "It's either that or you die at my hands, Simon. And neither of us want that."strat·e·gize (verb)— devise a plan of action to achieve a major or overall aim(NOT A STANDALONE. Please read part one "Imprinting" before reading this fic.)





	Strategizing

**Author's Note:**

> I started this series back in January and couldn't have ever dreamed of the success and fans it's gotten! Thank you for sticking around and waiting so patiently for the second installment, and I'm so sorry for the long wait. Let's hope you all start _preparing_ for part three. ;)
> 
> Also, disclaimer. Almost none of the subjects discussed in this series are canon. There's no such thing as an imprinting bond or even the concept of imprinting spoken about in the show or books, and I'm pretty sure a sire bond shift is impossible as well. It's just a concept I made up and turned into a fanfiction.

Raphael had no idea what to do concerning his current relationship with Simon. He had never before been imprinted on, and the only experience he had with the world of imprintation was what he had experienced after he had been turned. The imprint bond had faded with time, but it had taken a good thirty years to snap out of his dependence on Louis even after he had killed the boy. The memory made Raphael shudder, so he shoved it back into the corner of his mind and returned to his thoughts of Simon.

The sun had been down for a few minutes now, which meant Simon would arrive any second if he utilized his power of speed correctly. Raphael considered calling Magnus, knowing he would need the warlock's help to shift Simon's sire bond. But he decided to wait to tell Magnus until after Simon had agreed to go through with the bond shifting. At least he _hoped_ Simon would agree to go through with the bond shifting.

As Raphael laid in his bed and contemplated, he heard the door being thrown open and a meek voice exclaiming "Sorry, I didn't mean to slam the door!"

Raphael rolled his eyes and said "Just come here, fledgling. Sit on the bed and relax, please." He sat up and fixed his jacket sleeves, making sure he looked presentable and professional despite Simon's own attire of a t-shirt and jeans with worn out Converse shoes. Simon plopped down and kicked off his shoes, discarding them to the side of the bed and looking up at Raphael. "So.. What exactly just happened? One second I was fine and joking around with Clary, the next I'm growling in the corner like an animal refusing to talk to anyone but you."

"You're imprinted on me," Raphael said, with no further explanation. He was trying to avoid having to explain the phrase and concept at any cost, but he knew at some point he would have to inform the teen of what it meant. Simon's expression proved he would have to explain sooner rather than later, if the knit together eyebrows and quivering lips were any indication.

"Imprinted, like a baby bird," Raphael explained in the simplest terms possible, something easy for a downworlder with the knowledge of a mundane to understand. But that explanation proved to still be too complicated, Simon's head tilting to the side like a confused animal's. How appropriate.

Raphael sighed and turned to finally look at Simon dead on, putting his wrist in front of Simon's nose. Simon's eyes dropped closed immediately as he breathed in the scent of Raphael's skin, the senior vampire smirking victoriously.

"See? My scent calms you. That's what happens when you're imprinted on someone. Everything they do to or with you is calming. You find yourself becoming a shadow to that person, following them around and craving their touch. You're always begging me to listen to you sing to impress me, I provide you with food because you can't remember to feed yourself, and you fall asleep in my bed more often than your own. All things an imprinted animal would to."

Simon seemed to understand, but still looked more confused than not. "Is that why I went all feral at the Institute?"

"Partially," Raphael said and scooted closer to Simon subtly. "You're imprinted on me, that much isn't a secret. But the problem comes in when we add the fact that I'm not your sire on top of that. If I had turned you, this wouldn't be a problem. In fact, if I had sired you, the imprint bond would have more or less faded that night on the dance floor when I indulged your imprint bond and let you scent me. But since Camille is the one that made you, your instincts are confused."

Simon looked up at Raphael and said "What, so should I be imprinted on Camille instead of you?"

Raphael shook his head and said "No, not exactly. You imprint on the one that means the most to you the soonest after you're turned. In most cases, that person does end up being your sire and the bond fades rather quickly because your sire cares about your well-being and gives you what you need. But in our case, you touched _me_ first, and _I_ fed you, and _I_ gave you shelter. Not Camille. That sort of gesture speaks to your vampire instincts in a way that not even my mind can comprehend. I've been a vampire for almost a century, and I'm still not 100% sure how all the instinctual things work. Sire bonds and imprint bonds and clan bonds are too complicated to be understood, they're just felt."

"And oh boy do I feel it," Simon said and laid back on Raphael's bed, nuzzling into one of the pillows beneath him. "I've stolen so many of your suits to wear just because they smell like you since I was turned. I thought that was really weird at first, because why would something as dumb as your scent mean that much to me, but now it sort of makes sense."

Raphael hummed in understanding, laying back down beside Simon. "The thing is... If you stay imprinted on me, things will only become more complicated."

"How?" Simon asked and turned to look at Raphael. Raphael didn't look back at him, too afraid to make eye contact because of what he was about to say.

"It's common for a vampire that's not imprinted on their sire to become feral. And that goes beyond what happened at the institute. If your sire doesn't break the imprint bond soon after you're reborn, your instincts take over so strongly that you lose any and all rational thoughts. I've seen it happen once, but I had no role in the situation. Camille sired a vampire who imprinted on a member of the clan, and the only way to sever the imprint bond was for the imprinted feral vampire to be forced into the sun by the one they were imprinted on."

"You murdered them?" Simon asked, outraged at the revelation. Raphael sat up and said "It was the only thing that could have been done. Either we lived with the burden of a feral vampire whose hunger was never satiated, or we got rid of the problem in the only way we could. Imagine how hard it was for the one they had imprinted on."

There was a long heavy silence for a bit before Simon finally asked "Who was it?"

"The imprinted, or the one that was imprinted on?"

"The one that was imprinted on."

"...It was Atticus," Raphael replied quietly, looking away from Simon. Simon began to breathe, hyperventilating and looking around for a way to leave the conversation. "Stop breathing or you're going to pass out," Raphael said and laid back down beside Simon, taking the back of the fledgling's head and bringing it to his neck. Simon took a deep breath in and relaxed into the scent of Raphael.

Raphael sighed but didn't let go of the back of Simon's head, saying "This right here is half the problem. If my scent brings you this level of comfort from just a second of contact, we're going to lose you soon."

"And then you'll have to kill me?" Simon asked, though he already knew the answer. Raphael didn't bother to respond, thinking it best to let Simon deduce for himself what his response would be.

Raphael pulled away and looked at Simon, in the eyes. Simon's whole face was laced with pure fear, without a single glimmer of hope. Raphael tilted his head sympathetically and said "There's something we can do to save you."

Simon suddenly sat bolt upright, looking down at Raphael. "How? Tell me, I'll do anything, please don't kill me. You can't kill me."

"I won't kill you, relax," Raphael said and sat up on his elbows. "But you have to know, saving you won't be easy. It'll be hard, and long, and painful. You'll wish that I had just let you go feral and die, and that isn't an exaggeration."

Simon bit his lip and said "What do I have to do? Don't spare me a single detail."

Raphael looked up at the clock on his wall and pretended to check the time before nodding at Simon. He stood up and went over to his bay window, sitting down and looking out at the city. He took a brief pause before beginning his explanation in more detail than he had originally planned for.

"You'll have to be taken to the place where you first began your transformation, which is thankfully right upstairs. There, you'll need to be strapped down and starved until you're as close to feral as you can get before becoming irreversibly so. Your only company will be me, but I can't touch or come near you or else you'll re-humanize yourself. When you're just far gone enough, Magnus Bane will have to come and perform a sire bond trading ritual on you. To do that we'll need Camille's grave dirt, which Magnus is supposedly in supply of, as well as my own.

"The sire bond shifting ritual is where the true pain comes in. Magnus will need to collect whatever blood he can from you, remove Camille's from it with a spell, then replace that and take more until most of Camille's blood is gone. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, which you'll have to be awake for and endure through. After your blood has become more or less all yours again, he'll need to replace it with the blood of the one you're imprinted on. In other words, whatever parts of you that used to belong to Camille will then belong to me.

"Finally, I'll have to bite you and turn you again. There'll be no burial, but we'll need to bite each other and trade blood like you did with Camille after you were kidnapped. Hopefully in a less sexual manner this time," Raphael concluded, finally turning and looking at Simon. The boy looked like he was about to be sick, his face paler than usual and his eyes red around the edges. Raphael walked over to him and said in a harsh voice "It's either that or you die at my hands, Simon. And neither of us want that."

Simon looked up at Raphael looking pathetic, and Raphael could hear contractions in the boy's chest as his heart tried to beat in fear. Raphael put a hand on his chest and said "If you want to kill yourself instead, I'll understand. We'll have a ceremony to honor your life after death, and we'll invite your Nephilim and werewolf friends. But if I were in your shoes, I'd rather try and live than just let myself die."

"I want to live, but I don't want to suffer to make that happen," Simon said and his hands went up to his hair, tangling into his own curls as he looked down at Raphael helplessly. Raphael decided that tough love was the only thing that would get to Simon now, raising his voice and baring his fangs. "Suffering is the only way to allow yourself to live. Die if you want, go ahead, or face your fears and continue living. This is your choice and I trust that you're smart enough to make the correct one. This affects me as well, I hope you know. You being imprinted on me gives me three options: watch the one that needs me the most kill himself, kill him in the most barbaric but least inhumane way our kind knows of, or help him heal after he endures the most excruciating pain of his life. I'd much rather help you heal than watch you die or kill you myself, Simon. And I'd bet you want me to do the same."

Simon's eyes fell down to Raphael's feet and he swallowed thickly, saying "I.. I'll do it. When can we get all the resources and get Magnus in to perform the rituals?"

"I haven't told Magnus yet, but I'm sure it won't take him much convincing if he learns his dear Simon will die if he doesn't assist us," Raphael said and stepped away from Simon, not wanting to indulge the boy's bond any more. Simon raised an eyebrow and said "I'm his 'dear Simon'? Since when?"

"Since you both met. He has a thing for mundanes that are part of the Shadow World, and you becoming a vampire made you even more interesting than that. Thus, dear Simon."

Simon grinned and said "Wow, I've never been anyone's dear anything before. Unless you want to go an extra mile and call me your dear fledgling from now on."

"Not a chance, Lewis," Raphael said and pushed Simon out of his room. "I'll call Magnus tomorrow, and see what we can do and how soon we can do it. Alright? You, in the meantime, need to go bother someone that isn't me."

"What? Does none of the conversation we just had mean anything to you?" Simon asked as he was ushered out. Raphael shook his head and said "I have more pressing affairs to attend to. Goodnight, Simon."

"Goodnight, Raphael," Simon said with a small smile, walking the rest of the way out of the door. He was about to turn around and say more to Raphael to thank him, but the door was slammed in his face before he had the chance. He sighed and went to his own room, texting Clary before playing a game on his phone. He wanted to do whatever he could to get his mind off the idea of all the pain he would have to endure, perhaps even within the next 48 hours.

He imagined what it would be like to have Raphael as his sire instead of Camille, smiling softly at the thought before plugging in his phone and going to grab his guitar. On his way to the room he kept his guitar in, he bumped into Atticus, looking up at the burly vampire as he smiled down at him.

"Simon! Haven't seen you in a few nights. Everything okay?" he asked and crossed his arms. Simon's heart beat once with his anxiety, now that he knew what Atticus had had to endure when he was imprinted on. He smiled meekly and said "Yeah, I'm fine Atticus. Just gonna go get something to eat."

"Alright, kid. Have fun with that," Atticus said and walked in the direction he had been heading before. When he was finally out of view, Simon leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. How long had it taken Atticus to get over the fact that he had had to kill that vampire? How long ago had it happened? It didn't even seem to affect him anymore. Would Raphael get to that point someday if he had to let Simon die in the same way?

Simon ended up sitting there on the floor for what felt like hours, imagining every worst case scenario he could regarding the sire bond shift. Little did he know, Raphael was doing the same thing as he stared at the text from Magnus he had just received.

_"You should have told me that all of this was happening sooner, everyone under that roof is in danger. Including you and Simon. On my way now with all the supplies, don't tell him we're doing this tonight until I get there."_


End file.
